Saturday, November 26th, 2005

PLAYTIME

The Egyptian theatre has shown PLAYTIME on many occasions in the past, but each time I was always either out of town or unavailable for some reason. I’ve heard so many people tell me how brilliant this film is and that I MUST see it.

Tonight I finally got my chance. I saw PLAYTIME on 70mm at the Egyptian. You may be shocked to hear me say this…..but I didn’t like it. If you want to throw rotten cabbage at me, I will understand. The film just didn’t work for me. I loved the production design, the site gags and the costumes BUT there was NO STORY to tie it all together. The mise en scene alone is not enough to hold my interest for 2 hours! There was no story, no plot, no character development…NO NOTHING. This movie was all dressed up with no place to go.

Perhaps this is just a matter of personal taste, but I tend to dislike films that have no story. I hated 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY. That film had no momentum and I thought watching it was pure torture. I also hated UMBERTO D for the same reason. Some people have argued with me that these films DID have stories, they were just told in a very visual and abstract sort of way. I see their point, but regardless I just didn’t care for these films.

I love great dialogue, great characters and a solid story. Maybe that’s why I love Billy Wilder films so much.